Using the 'British Library Map Catalogue on CD-ROM'

(a brief and selective Guide)

There are many ways in which the CD can help you find what you want - not
all of them expected. Search results appear virtually instantaneously,
because every individual word, number, abbreviation, etc., has been
indexed. Even if you are
an experienced computer user, it is recommended that you look through these notes (which occupy the equivalent of four typed pages). This text may be printed off and used by an individual owner of the CD, or by a user in a library. For more extensive
information, see ‘Searching The British Library Map Catalogue on CD-ROM’, a 61-page guide that comes with the CD.

Mouse. Move the
mouse pointer to the relevant part of the screen, then click on the
left-hand button. You will be using the mouse for everything except
typing in search words.

Main Screen. If you are at the
screen with the map background, click on ‘Start’.

Search
Screen. You start from the ‘Search Screen’, whose centre is white with
horizontal lines. There should be no lettering in the white boxes. If
there is, click on the blue ‘Clear Search’ label to remove a previous
user’s search.

Help

Demonstration. You may find
it helpful to experiment first with the demonstration screen (click on the
‘Search Help’ button to the right). Click on the various elements in turn
(whenever you see a hand symbol) and an explanation will pop up.

On-screen Help. Two sorts of Help are available on the Search
Screen, in the form of tips:

‘Tool Tips’. These yellow messages change as you move around the
Search Screen. Click on ‘Tips ON’ to turn them off.

Information
Bar (along the bottom left). These messages change as you move the mouse
pointer.

Let the CD-ROM answer your questions!

There is a wide
range of Help available on the CD. You are offered four alternative
routes to it:

‘Basic Searching’

[see ‘Demonstration’ above].

From where you are

. Press the F1 key and you will get Help
about the particular search field you have clicked on or about the screen
or window you are in.

Via the Contents screen

. Click on Help (top of the screen) then
‘Contents’. You can click on any of the sub-headings under which the
Help file is organised.

Via the Index

. Click on Help (top of the screen) then ‘Search’.
This leads you into a comprehensive index to the Help file.
Start typing a query where the cursor is flashing, double-click
on the relevant term, then click ‘Go To’.

Navigation

How to search. There are two ways to search:-

Typing

. Click on the white box next to your chosen search
term, then type in.You can use more than one box. Ignore capital
letters and accents.

Indexes

. There are indexes for each
specific search (‘field’) and an index for the entire catalogue (under
‘Whole Record’). Click on the grey label button for your chosen search
term and go into the Index(es) for that field. There will often be a
choice of single Words or complete Lines. Click on the one you want and
it will appear in front of the other, and in bold. Then start typing
ahead and you are taken to the
relevant part of the index. Double-click on the one(s) you want, then
click on the Add Selections to Search Screen button.

Hits. The relevant entries for each search appear to the right.
The total ‘hits’, i.e. the number of records that match all
your criteria, appear at the bottom.

Display. You have two
options (click on the buttons top right to select or change the Display
option):

List

Display, which shows several, partial records at
once. The grey highlighted record is the operative one and described as,
e.g., Record 17 of 23.

Full

Display, which shows a single,
complete record. Full Display also includes subsequent editions (see
‘Parent’ and ‘Child’ records below).

To move between or within records, use the ‘scroll bar’ to the right.
Use the up/down arrows to move one element at a time; click above/below
the square button to move a screen at a time; drag the square button to
make bigger movements; use Home/End to go to the beginning/end of List
Display.

‘Parent’ and ‘Child’ records. If there are
subsequent editions (Child records), the List Display will show how many
there are, e.g. "Subs: 4". Their details will appear on the Full Display
beneath the description of the earliest edition (Parent record). Click on
the horizontal dividing line and drag it up to give more space to the
Child records. You can search on elements in a Child record, e.g. its
date. There are about 18,000 subsequent edition records.

Sorting. In List Display select ‘Sort’ and then the relevant
option. You need to sort a geographical search on Place/Area Covered to
bring together the separate sequences of the four source catalogues. Note
that the Year option will sort on the date of the first edition,
even if the record was selected because of a subsequent
edition.

Clear Search. Return to the Search Screen (button
near the top) and click on ‘Clear Search’ to prepare for a new search.
Click on ‘Search History’ to retrieve and then reinsert an earlier search.
Click again on ‘Search History’ to close its window.

Types of Search

Date. To
restrict to material pre/post a certain date, or for date-ranging, look at
the instructions in the bottom left of the Search Screen, first placing
your mouse cursor over ‘Year’. Some of the earliest records omit a
publication date. If you want everything that is, or might be,
pre-1600, enter: <1600 OR NONE

Geographical. There are
two possible routes:

‘Place/Area Covered’. Use the index if you are not sure of the
name. That way you will often see variant spellings and can select those
as well.

‘Place/Sub-regions’. If you want everything that falls
within a given area, click instead on ‘Place/Sub-regions’. Then
follow the hierarchy from continent to country to region. You can continue
down whenever you see >. Right-click when you arrive at what you
want, e.g. Scotland or California.

Name. For pre-1975 material, try entering the surname into
‘Whole Record’ (bottom of the screen) [see ‘Tips and Techniques' below].
That way you may pick up names from titles, imprints and cataloguers'
notes. For example, under ‘Name/Publisher’, Speed* produces 48 hits
for John Speed; under ‘Whole Record’, the figure is 259.

Place
or country of publication. This allows you to retrieve material
recorded as being published in either a town, e.g. New York,
or a country, e.g. United States (which will include all the New
York entries).

Scale. The Representative Fraction (e.g.
1:15,000) was generally not recorded for printed maps until about
1940. The scale statements of manuscript maps were included,
however, in the 1844-61 catalogue. Most of these statements have been
translated into an RF. You can select by scale and scale-range but
remember that there will be limited retrieval for printed maps.

Subject. Start by finding the relevant term in the Subject
index. For best results, type this term (or its significant word) into
Whole Record along with relevant title words (linked by OR) [see
‘logical connectors’ below]. NB. If you are using Whole Record you need to
delete the entry under ‘Subject’.

Tips and Techniques

Whole
Record. The Whole Record search looks at every single word, number,
abbreviation, acronym, etc. in the whole database (190,000 main
records). Some information can be retrieved here only, e.g. ‘Notes’
(cataloguers’ comments). Since the Whole Record will also pick up the
formal headings supplied by cataloguers (Place/Area Covered, Name,
Subject, Format) it is recommended that this option is used for
most searches [for pre-1975 records]. Click on ‘Whole Record’ and
press the F1 key for guidance on special searches, e.g. facsimiles,
manuscript maps, series mapping, topographical views.

Logical
connectors. You have three options:

AND - when you want both terms, e.g. road AND atlas

OR -
for acceptable alternatives, e.g. medieval OR mediaeval

NOT - to
refine or exclude irrelevancies, e.g. overton NOT john [if you want Henry,
Hen. H. etc.]. For complex search forms, use brackets, e.g. overton NOT
(john OR j OR i OR io)

Truncation. Always consider using this. Put * after the stem to
get any word that starts thus, e.g. geolog* (for various language
equivalents). Use the Whole Record index to spot the possibilities
beforehand. There are 100 for geolog* !

Keep it simple!
Enter as little as possible, e.g. a surname, or two or more
distinctive words, preferably from different fields, say, an author
surname and a title-word. If what you enter is not exactly matched
in the record you will retrieve nothing. If you receive zero hits for a
single field you will receive zero hits in total.

Accept irrelevant hits. To achieve all you want, you must
accept some you do not want.

NB. This is a
retroconversion. It allows new forms of access to essentially
unchanged records, some of which date back to the early 19th century. The
CD comprises the complete sequence of the published and automated
catalogues of printed maps as well as the 3-volume Catalogue of
Manuscript Maps (1844-61). The following are not included:

manuscript maps acquired since about 1840 [however, unpublished indexes to MS maps are available in
the British Library]. See also the British Library's Manuscripts Catalogue